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Embracer: Tomb Raider Remastered performed above expectations, Alone in the Dark reboot performed below expectations

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
How fucking hard can it be. Just pick a good location put a decent story in and make some amazing level design.
We will get a remaster of Deathtrap Dungeon before they go back to making games with good level design and a hot no nonsense busty explorer in booty shorts that just want the secret treasure just for the sake of having the secret treasure.
 
Pricing Alone in the Dark at 60 euros, a niche title the dumbest choice they could've made but then again this is Embracer we're talking about. Scum of the earth.
 

havoc00

Member
It appears that this year’s resurrection of the Alone in the Dark series will have a difficult time getting a follow-up. According to the latest earnings report from Embracer Group, the reimagining of the 1992 Survival Horror cult classic has sold less than expected.

According to the report, Alone in the Dark saw a positive reception from fans with its launch in March, but in contrast received a “mixed reception” from critics and “ultimately performed below management expectations.” Sales figures for the game were not revealed, but to put some perspective on the game’s performance, according to SteamDB, the currently player count is less than 70 at the moment, compared to a concurrent player count peak of 1,628 when it launched.

This report comes a month after news that Embracer Group had laid off several staff at Alone in the Dark developer Pieces Interactive not long after the game’s release. Embracer Group hadn’t commented on the layoffs then, but the latest earnings report does provide some reasoning.

Embracer has been in a bit of a restructuring mode as of late. The company recently sold off Borderlands developer Gearbox Interactive and Evil Dead: The Game developer Saber Interactive, as well as cancelling a new Deus Ex game at Eidos Montreal.

Despite being rough around the edges, Harrison enjoyed Alone in the Dark. In his review, Harrison pointed out the game’s strengths in the writing, the characters and the world-building far outweighed the issues that he came across during his time with the game.

 

Mr Moose

Member
I think there was a thread a few days ago about it, let me check.
Edit:
 
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Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
Sorry to hear that. I'm part of the target audience for this one as a big fan of third-person action horror, but it screamed AA and was too high-priced at $60. They'll be getting a sale from me any day now once they slash the price.
 

Hugare

Member
If You Say So Shrug GIF


Anyone else surprised?
 

semiconscious

Gold Member
for every robocop, there'll be an alone in the dark. unfortunate, but this's kinda the way it's always been in double-a land...
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Sorry to hear that. I'm part of the target audience for this one as a big fan of third-person action horror, but it screamed AA and was too high-priced at $60. They'll be getting a sale from me any day now once they slash the price.
This is another release that someone has said is a $60 release when I paid
1GEIc59.jpeg

Are you guys getting over charged?

Either way it's a shame, I did enjoy the game despite the ending.
And the Devs did do some interesting stuff graphically that added nice touches that other AAA games miss.
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It's a shame that Alone in the Dark didn't do too well for them, but understandable with it's $60 price tag.

I bought the game on GOG, and really liked it. If they didn't release the game on GOG, I think I would have skipped it - but was willing to shell out more than I normally would have to support games like this releasing DRM-free. $40 would have been the right price point for this game and I think would have allowed it to sell really well.
 

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
This is another release that someone has said is a $60 release when I paid
1GEIc59.jpeg

Are you guys getting over charged?

Either way it's a shame, I did enjoy the game despite the ending.
And the Devs did do some interesting stuff graphically that added nice touches that other AAA games miss.
That should be about $50 USD, so it's not a crazy difference. I do wonder what led to it costing you less, though.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
That should be about $50 USD, so it's not a crazy difference. I do wonder what led to it costing you less, though.
Probably that there is more retail competition in the UK. In the US, every major retailer has agreed to just charge MSRP (remember the "S" stands for "Suggested") on every game rather than competing with each other on price.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
$30 for 3 games with all DLC content attached and replayability for multiple playthroughs.

$60 for a 6-10 hour playthrough with little to no replayability. At most maybe 20 hours if you play through the game as both Protagonists.

Tough choice here. Takes little to wonder why Alone in the Dark did not sell as much. If it was sold at $30 I'd imagine it would have performed better.
 

mdkirby

Member
Sadly I think alone in the dark was a perfect candidate to suffer from the gamespass/psExtra effect.

It looks like my sort of game, I expect I’ll enjoy it, but it received middling reviews, has the appearance of “this will be on gamespass soon”, and just isn’t an attractive proposition at full price…and this is from someone who isn’t really price conscious. So anyone who is will have almost certainly held out.
 

Alan Wake

Member
$30 for 3 games with all DLC content attached and replayability for multiple playthroughs.

$60 for a 6-10 hour playthrough with little to no replayability. At most maybe 20 hours if you play through the game as both Protagonists.

Tough choice here. Takes little to wonder why Alone in the Dark did not sell as much. If it was sold at $30 I'd imagine it would have performed better.
Do you really think people in general put all that into the equation before they buy a game? I think it's much simpler than that. People buy games they think look interesting, which means it needs good marketing. In the case of Alone in the Dark it seems even people here on a gaming forum didn't even know the game was out.
 

hybrid_birth

Gold Member
I rented it when it came so no buyers remorse.

It was ok. Not really scary. I enjoyed it somewhat. Ended up finishing it.

Had to look up guides for the puzzles.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Do you really think people in general put all that into the equation before they buy a game? I think it's much simpler than that. People buy games they think look interesting, which means it needs good marketing. In the case of Alone in the Dark it seems even people here on a gaming forum didn't even know the game was out.
Oh for sure. Other bigger games like Dogma 2 took full attention over AitD to the point it was quickly forgotten. Sent to die amongst more hyped up releases.
 
why are you blaming Embracer if it was great but nobody bought it?

so its embracer's fault people didnt buy the game ?

Seriously?

While Embracer wasn't directly involved in the day-to-day marketing activities of the game, they were responsible financially and strategically for the Alone in the Dark reboot.

This includes any marketing or lack thereof.

I said fuck Embracer because despite the game being good, it didn't hit sales targets and thus resulted in layoffs.

Presumably if it had been marketed properly it would've reached more people.

So, fuck Embracer.
 

Scotty W

Banned
Alone in the Dark has always been a loser franchise. Never a single iota of quality, but endlessly rebooted because people remember it for being the first.
 

semiconscious

Gold Member
Alone in the Dark has always been a loser franchise. Never a single iota of quality, but endlessly rebooted because people remember it for being the first.
pretty harsh. the original game was very innovative, conceptually & technically:
Raynal was motivated to create Alone in the Dark due to his interest in 3D animation and his fondness for horror films. The game's storyline was inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft and the work of directors like Dario Argento and George Romero; Raynal's programming team worked to convey much of this story via key texts scattered about the game's environment. To overcome technical limitations, the production team also employed a fixed camera angle system to dramatically frame the movement of three-dimensional characters on top of two-dimensional background images...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_in_the_Dark_(1992_video_game)
 
For what it's worth, The Last Revelation + Chronicles remaster seems like a safe bet now

I've seen some rumours that AOD might even be in a second collection. But yeah, Aspyr has the Mac source codes for TR1gold-TR3+expansion, as well as Chronicles, The Last Revelation and Angle of Darkness. Aspyr has the source codes for the first six mainline Tomb Raider games (Gold/ GOTY editions) , which are derived from the PC ports.

Feral Entertainment (who is another company known for porting Windows games to Mac) basically have ported every other mainline Tomb Raider that came out after AOD to Mac platforms.

Also, interestingly enough, the Evercade console actually got recompiled versions of the PS1 versions of Tomb Raider 1-3. The Evercade release are the PS1 games, while the remasters are based on the old Aspyr Mac ports.
 
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Dazraell

Gold Member
I've seen some rumours that AOD might even be in a second collection. But yeah, Aspyr has the Mac source codes for TR1gold-TR3+expansion, as well as Chronicles, The Last Revelation and Angle of Darkness. Aspyr has the source codes for the first six mainline Tomb Raider games (Gold/ GOTY editions) , which are derived from the PC ports.

Feral Entertainment (who is another company known for porting Windows games to Mac) basically have ported every other mainline Tomb Raider that came out after AOD to Mac platforms.
Yeah, I would personally love if they would do TLR, Chronicles and AoD as a second collection and Legend, Anniversary and Underworld as third, but I just prefer to keep my expectations in check. Unironically, selling AoD separately theoretically would have smaller commercial potential as the game is considered as the black sheep of this series, so who knows
 
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